With the huge change in lifestyle and practices, the shopping habits of people are also changing rapidly. As technology grows rapidly, exploring new ways to increase the living standard, e-commerce, and online purchase has taken over.
Combined with the sky-high inflation that is reported in the United States, around 855 stores have announced their closure in 2023. Be it any sector like fashion, grocery, home appliances, and retailers, there has been a steady decline in the number of customers in the stores.
The popularization of e-commerce and online shopping, combined with inflation is said to give rise to a rapid ‘retail apocalypse’ across the nation.
From available reports, it can be understood that the trend had been growing over the years. Statistics suggest that from 2016 onwards, around 40 percent of department stores have been closed down.
It should also be noted that big names among retailers like Forever 21, Circuit City, Brooks Brothers, Lucky Brand, and J. Crew have filed for bankruptcy. The fact that the changes took place just over a year makes the seriousness of the situation much more clear.
Many companies have already announced the closing of their multiple outlets in different locations and these names include some of the biggest ones in business. Here is a list of major brands that will be closing down some of their outlets.

It should be noted that as the situation goes worse for these outlets, chances are only high that there may be more brands joining in to close down their stores
1. Gap And Banana Republic
The Gap is an American clothing brand and accessories retailer and Banana Republic is also an upscale clothing accessories retailer. It is owned by The Gap. Originally founded by Mel and Patricia Ziegler, the Banana Republic was later acquired by Gap Inc., in 1983.
The company, which is one of the most popular clothing stores has now announced the closure of almost 350 Gap and Banana Republic stores across the continent. The outlet has already closed their stores in Mall of America last month. According to the available information, the store will close down almost one-third of its entire stores.
The brand chief executive officer of Gap, Mark Breitbard stated that the brand had been depending heavily on low-productivity, high-rent stores for the past period and they minted to put a stop to it by 2023.
He also added that discussion about real estate had been going on for quite some time and that they were planning to shift to a true Omni-model. From Breitbard’s words, it is clear that the company plans to shift and concentrate on small and healthier fleets of stores.
2. Bed Bath & Beyond
Bed Bath & Beyond is an American retail chain that deals with domestic merchandise. The company was founded in 1971 and it operates in countries like Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, other than the United States.
Among the major companies that have announced the closure of their stores, Bed Bath & Beyond tops the list with the largest number of stores that will be closed down this year. As per the information given by the company, almost 416 stores will be closed down by the end of this year.
During the peak time of their success, Bed Bath & Beyond used to operate in more than 1,500 stores, and currently, with their 416 outlets being closed down forever, the outlet will only be operating in around 480 locations.
3. Walmart
Walmart is a popular American multinational corporation that owns and operates a chain of supermarkets, grocery stores, and discount department stores across the United States. The company has decided to close down around n160 of its stores in the coming six years.
Along with the decrease in the number of shoppers due to online shopping and also the problem posed by the inflation in the country, Walmart also had to face an additional problem of increased theft from their stores.
The Chief executive officer of the company stated that high levels of threat have contributed to the increase in price and even to the total shutdown of some of their stores.
The company decided to face the theft issues by introducing suitable anti-theft devices but the result was the opposite of what was expected. As the stores installed new anti-theft devices, the company received backlash for its customers.
4. Tuesday Morning
One of the major stores that are worst hit by the scenario includes Tuesday Morning. The outlet is famous for its household merchandise and has filed for bankruptcy two times within a time span of three years.
According to the statement of the CEO of the company Andrew Berger, Tuesday Morning Is currently in an ‘exceedingly burdensome debt. He also added that the company is trying to implement the needed measures that will help them to emerge even stronger and provide their customers with the best value prices and products.
As per the available reports, Tuesday morning will be closing down almost 265 other outlets. The number is more than half of the total number of their locations.
The company will currently be closing down stores in low-traffic regions, which are known to generate less income, and to keep the stores in high-traffic areas. This way, the company will be able to focus on a lesser number of stores that have the potential to generate a considerable income.
5. Macy’s
The high-end American department store founded by Rowland Hussey Macy in 1858 came up with a plan to close down almost 120 of its physical stores by 2023.
The company announced the closing of almost 125 of its outlets in 2020 and the closing down of these outlets will also get rid of almost 2,000 jobs in the process. Jeff Gennette, who is the chairman and the CEO of Macy’s stated that the firm has closed down almost 170 stores since 2016.
Last year, Macy’s announced that they will be closing down their stores in locations like Alabama, California, Colorado, Missouri, Texas, and Florida. During the third quarter, the company closed locations in California, Maryland, Colorado, and Hawaii.
6. JCPenny
JCPenney is an American middle-class department store. Available reports suggest that the shop operates in almost 49 states. The company was declared bankrupt in 2020 and as a result, it announced that it will be closing almost 800 of its stores across the nation.
Before the current scenario, the company was already affected by the pandemic and they had been losing money in business since 2010. The company had gathered almost $4.5 billion as overall debt.
Due to rising debt and other concerns, the company had to close down almost 200 of its stores and currently they have around 670 stores operating in the United States.
7. Big Lots
The American home decor and furniture retailer has decided to close down three of their stores in California and four of their stores in Colorado.
The executive vice president of the company stated that the closures of stores for Big Lots will be greater than their opening as they are concentrating on a new strategy where they give more focus to stores in smaller towns than stores in big cities.
He also added that the company plans to return to a normalized number of closures, he made it clear that they will be looking at their underperforming store in order to make the necessary change.
Also Read:- Fast-Food Giant Subway $8B Sale; Clamps Down On Franchisees
8. Party City
The American retail chain of party stores was forced to put up 12 of their locations for auction due to bankruptcy.
Apart from these 212 stores, 10 more of their stores will be closed for good this month. The major reason for the downfall of the chain is cited to be the pandemic that brought a restriction on the gathering of people.
As the pandemic hit harder, the company was completely out of business for months. As a result, Party City reported that the company was in total debt of $1.4 billion.
When Party City filed for bankruptcy, the company had around 770 stores owned by the firm and around 53 franchised stores. The company has closed down almost 150 of its stores between the years 2019 and 2021.